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NEW TRADE CHART CAUSING SOME COMMOTION
Posted by Mike Florio on April 17, 2008, 6:22 p.m.
We’ve heard from a couple of league insiders regarding the apparent efforts of some teams to revise the outdated trade chart, which was developed long before the signing of a top-five draft pick to a long-term contract entailed the sacrifice of one or more testicles.

There’s a sense in some circles that the teams backing the change are the teams hoping to trade up. As one source said, “The teams trying to have a new trade chart are teams trying to steal their way into the top ten. The teams that have those picks aren’t that stupid.”

The source’s bottom-line observation? “You will not see a noticeable difference in trade value on draft day.”

But others disagree that the changes are being driven by teams looking to find an easy way to trade up. The reality is that, under the old chart, there are hardly any trades, because the combination of picks surrendered for the ability to move up and money paid to the player drafted with the higher pick makes the transaction undesirable. Indeed, teams who would like to trade out of those big-money spots should welcome a new trade chart that allows them to move down without creating the impression that they got screwed by not getting enough value in return from the team that moved up.

As Dolphins G.M. Jeff Ireland said on Thursday at his “pillar of your defense” press conference, “I don’t necessarily know if [the current trade chart] applies to the first pick anymore because no one wants to pay that value to go up and get that pick because now you’re dealing with the economics.”

The new chart knocks down the point values for the first four picks, and raises the points for the rest of the first round, making it easier to do deals.

And if part of the motivation comes from teams looking to move up, so be it. If there’s a team out there that wants to step in one of the high-dollar spots, there should be a fair way to make it happen. Under the existing chart, the combination of money and draft picks is simply too much.

That said, we think the best way to fix the trade chart is to adopt a new point system at some point after the draft and before the start of the regular season, when everyone’s record is 0-0 and no one can be perceived as having a motivation to slant the numbers in a way that helps a given team get what it wants.